While walking in Santiago de Cuba, I followed the sweet saxaphone sounds that filled the street from the Music Conservatory. Up the stairs I went to meet with Juan Chacón Gonzalez, director of the Saxaphone Quartet. They are one of the few groups of musicians that play jazz in Santiago de Cuba. After their envigorating, afternoon rehearsal was over, Chacon and I pulled up a couple of chairs and started talking.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself as a musician, your influences.
Juan Chacón González: I studied at the Conservatory here in Santiago de Cuba in 1972. Then I went on to Havana, to the National School of Arts, and completed my studies. I studied with a very good professor, Mr. Carlos Manual Fernandez Averhoff. I believe he's known since he was a saxophone player with the band Irakere — one of the sax players. The saxophone players were Paquito de Rivera and Carlos Averhoff. To tell you the truth the idea behind a quartet came from him because when I was studying with him in Havana he had a four piece saxophone band. And that idea always stuck with me. I liked that kind of work. As a matter of fact, I had the opportunity to play with him in class. And that idea always stuck with me to one day, put together a quartet. Time went by, I returned to Santiago, and I was a part of the Tropicana Orchestra in Santiago. There I met some musicians who studied with me, and the opportunity came up. So I thought, here are the people, I'm going to give it a shot, because at first it was a trial. I wanted to try to see how it sounded.

Q: Which year was this?
Chacón: That was '95. It was a trial. I had the original music for a four-piece saxophone group and I called them up — the three of them with me, and we tried it out. I realized that it had a good sound to it, that it could end up working. And from there on we started it, as a game, to keep us going. The problem is that you get boxed in with cabarets, and you don't develop. So we tried it out to study the possibilities, but we realized that it was working, and people enjoyed it. People would say, "Keep going!" and that is, really how things got started.

Q: And it has worked until today? Four or five years now?
Chacón: Yes. In July of '95, coincidentally this same date — tomorrow.

Q: An anniversary?
Chacón: Yes. It will be the anniversary of our first public performance. The fourth of July of 1995 was they date we went out and played, but we didn't officially start until 1996. We did that show the first year, but we didn't have any more, due to work conflicts — we were working in the cabaret, and we didn't have time to do it — and then in 1996 we started working together officially.

Q: And how is jazz here in Santiago, generally speaking?
Chacón: Well, jazz here in Santiago, to be honest with you — there isn't much in the way of tradition for jazz. More than likely you will hear jazz in schools. In school the kids practice their jazz. Jazz is better heard in Havana. In our case, we don't play pure jazz, as it were. We actually work with Cuban music, but all of our music contains fusion, and always has jazz elements. For example, if we play a danzón, the phrases contain jazz elements, it has improvisation, which is a part of jazz, but it's not pure jazz, per se.

Q: Do you have shows every week? Is there a place where you play regularly?
Chacón: We don't have a specific place. They call us to play wherever. For example, we often play here at the Sala de Dolores, in the concert hall. We're playing here tomorrow night. It's a shared stage concert with a six-piece female vocal group called Las Divas. It's tomorrow. But there are times, for example, when we go to there provinces; to Guantánamo, Camauey, wherever they want us.

Q: I don't know the exact story, but what happened between you and Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer?
Chacón: What happened was that we, in that time, rehearsed in the music conservatory. So, she went to the conservatory, I think she was there to deliver some donations—they're always involved with donations. So she was looking around, checking out the conservatory, I don't know, and walked by the place where we were rehearsing. So it immediately got her attention. She came in, I guess they had some camera people with them. She even played with us right then and there for a little while and then she told us, "I am going to record an album with you". We thought it was a lie. We thought that! But, it was really true what she said. After a couple of months she came prepared to make the record we did together. And from that point we've established a good friendship with Jane and Larry.

Q: And this is the album Alma de Santiago?
Chacón: Yes. Alma de Santiago. Yes. I liked it because of the mix, the variety of the album. I like it.

Q: Do you have projects in line for recordings?
Chacón: After that, we recorded, I mean, they invited us and David as well — David Virei — to take part in a recording session in the Abdala stuidops with a Cuban trombone player who, I'm not sure if he lives in New Jersey or in New York, and his name is Juan Pablo Torres.

Q: From New Jersey. I know him.
Chacón: He made an album entitled Trombón Afro-Cubano. They invited us because of the relationship we had with Jane, since Del, I believe is the German guys name, who is Jane's producer, recommended us. So they sent for us, we went to Havana to the Abdala studios and we recorded two songs on Juan Pablo Torres's album.

But we also have our own record; the only album we've made — which was done with a French company: Ovidice Records. It was a live album and the album is selling well in Europe. We really have the need — and we've talked to Jane about this — we would really like to travel, I mean, to other places. We have an album that no one knows about. If no one knows about it, the album can't have good sales, since there are no live performances to promote the album. And we really have the urge to travel abroad to show our work and at the same time perfect our skills. When you relate with an audience, your work improves, you know the path you need to take. But if you don't know, you're not traveling, no one knows you, and you'll never know that. To be honest it's something we'd like to do immediately.

Q: Why aren't you playing at the jazz festival in Havana?
Chacón: I think that it was a matter of doing it, our superiors, the owners of the company here haven't thought of, in this case, doing this type of promotion for us. I think that would be perfect for us. I think we're going to have to do it ourselves, go to Havana and make contacts. Because if not…

Q: … exactly.
Chacón: No one is going to get to know us. We've actually thought about it— we're looking into performing in Havana before the end of the year. We're trying to make the arrangements to see what happens.

Click 'refresh' or 'reload' in your browser window to view a video clip of
Juan Chacón Gonzalez and el Cuarteto de Saxo from Santiago de Cuba.

Entrevista, fotos y video ©2002 by Julia Sewell
Transcribcion y tranduccion ©2002 by Wright Interpreting
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

While walking in Santiago de Cuba, I followed the sweet saxaphone sounds that filled the street from the Music Conservatory. Up the stairs I went to meet with Juan Chacón Gonzalez, director of the Saxaphone Quartet. They are one of the few groups of musicians that play jazz in Santiago de Cuba. After their envigorating, afternoon rehearsal was over, Chacon and I pulled up a couple of chairs and started talking.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself as a musician, your influences.
Juan Chacón González: I studied at the Conservatory here in Santiago de Cuba in 1972. Then I went on to Havana, to the National School of Arts, and completed my studies. I studied with a very good professor, Mr. Carlos Manual Fernandez Averhoff. I believe he's known since he was a saxophone player with the band Irakere — one of the sax players. The saxophone players were Paquito de Rivera and Carlos Averhoff. To tell you the truth the idea behind a quartet came from him because when I was studying with him in Havana he had a four piece saxophone band. And that idea always stuck with me. I liked that kind of work. As a matter of fact, I had the opportunity to play with him in class. And that idea always stuck with me to one day, put together a quartet. Time went by, I returned to Santiago, and I was a part of the Tropicana Orchestra in Santiago. There I met some musicians who studied with me, and the opportunity came up. So I thought, here are the people, I'm going to give it a shot, because at first it was a trial. I wanted to try to see how it sounded.

Q: Which year was this?
Chacón: That was '95. It was a trial. I had the original music for a four-piece saxophone group and I called them up — the three of them with me, and we tried it out. I realized that it had a good sound to it, that it could end up working. And from there on we started it, as a game, to keep us going. The problem is that you get boxed in with cabarets, and you don't develop. So we tried it out to study the possibilities, but we realized that it was working, and people enjoyed it. People would say, "Keep going!" and that is, really how things got started.

Q: And it has worked until today? Four or five years now?
Chacón: Yes. In July of '95, coincidentally this same date — tomorrow.

Q: An anniversary?
Chacón: Yes. It will be the anniversary of our first public performance. The fourth of July of 1995 was they date we went out and played, but we didn't officially start until 1996. We did that show the first year, but we didn't have any more, due to work conflicts — we were working in the cabaret, and we didn't have time to do it — and then in 1996 we started working together officially.

Q: And how is jazz here in Santiago, generally speaking?
Chacón: Well, jazz here in Santiago, to be honest with you — there isn't much in the way of tradition for jazz. More than likely you will hear jazz in schools. In school the kids practice their jazz. Jazz is better heard in Havana. In our case, we don't play pure jazz, as it were. We actually work with Cuban music, but all of our music contains fusion, and always has jazz elements. For example, if we play a danzón, the phrases contain jazz elements, it has improvisation, which is a part of jazz, but it's not pure jazz, per se.

Q: Do you have shows every week? Is there a place where you play regularly?
Chacón: We don't have a specific place. They call us to play wherever. For example, we often play here at the Sala de Dolores, in the concert hall. We're playing here tomorrow night. It's a shared stage concert with a six-piece female vocal group called Las Divas. It's tomorrow. But there are times, for example, when we go to there provinces; to Guantánamo, Camauey, wherever they want us.

Q: I don't know the exact story, but what happened between you and Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer?
Chacón: What happened was that we, in that time, rehearsed in the music conservatory. So, she went to the conservatory, I think she was there to deliver some donations—they're always involved with donations. So she was looking around, checking out the conservatory, I don't know, and walked by the place where we were rehearsing. So it immediately got her attention. She came in, I guess they had some camera people with them. She even played with us right then and there for a little while and then she told us, "I am going to record an album with you". We thought it was a lie. We thought that! But, it was really true what she said. After a couple of months she came prepared to make the record we did together. And from that point we've established a good friendship with Jane and Larry.

Q: And this is the album Alma de Santiago?
Chacón: Yes. Alma de Santiago. Yes. I liked it because of the mix, the variety of the album. I like it.

Q: Do you have projects in line for recordings?
Chacón: After that, we recorded, I mean, they invited us and David as well — David Virei — to take part in a recording session in the Abdala stuidops with a Cuban trombone player who, I'm not sure if he lives in New Jersey or in New York, and his name is Juan Pablo Torres.

Q: From New Jersey. I know him.
Chacón: He made an album entitled Trombón Afro-Cubano. They invited us because of the relationship we had with Jane, since Del, I believe is the German guys name, who is Jane's producer, recommended us. So they sent for us, we went to Havana to the Abdala studios and we recorded two songs on Juan Pablo Torres's album.

But we also have our own record; the only album we've made — which was done with a French company: Ovidice Records. It was a live album and the album is selling well in Europe. We really have the need — and we've talked to Jane about this — we would really like to travel, I mean, to other places. We have an album that no one knows about. If no one knows about it, the album can't have good sales, since there are no live performances to promote the album. And we really have the urge to travel abroad to show our work and at the same time perfect our skills. When you relate with an audience, your work improves, you know the path you need to take. But if you don't know, you're not traveling, no one knows you, and you'll never know that. To be honest it's something we'd like to do immediately.

Q: Why aren't you playing at the jazz festival in Havana?
Chacón: I think that it was a matter of doing it, our superiors, the owners of the company here haven't thought of, in this case, doing this type of promotion for us. I think that would be perfect for us. I think we're going to have to do it ourselves, go to Havana and make contacts. Because if not…

Q: … exactly.
Chacón: No one is going to get to know us. We've actually thought about it— we're looking into performing in Havana before the end of the year. We're trying to make the arrangements to see what happens.

Click 'refresh' or 'reload' in your browser window to view a video clip of
Juan Chacón Gonzalez and el Cuarteto de Saxo from Santiago de Cuba.

Entrevista, fotos y video ©2002 by Julia Sewell
Transcribcion y tranduccion ©2002 by Wright Interpreting
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.